A Complete Meal in a Bag of Chips? Is my idea a flop?

[juanalou]

Hi Guys,

I have developed the following product: A complete meal in a bag of chips. It contains all the nutrients that you need from a meal and tastes good unlike the current meal replacement products. I am looking to get funded with Kickstarter to bring it to shelves. I have spent months researching my target market and while they respond well, nobody is interested in leaving their emails once they visit the site. I suppose it's that they do not care for it that much..

I have been using Instagram and FB PPC as means to get traffic and it's ok at best. I know it is really crucial to have an actual email list before even putting up something live on the Kickstarter site. What could be wrong from your opinion? Website design? Copywriting? or the idea is not appealing at all?

www.satisbite.com

Thanks

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Very nice, I do like the presentation.
Product appeals to myself and appeals to the health issues of its potential market.

A) How does it taste?
B) Have you made any sales? What channels have you hit?
C) Is Kickstarter the right medium for this?
D) Not sure this product lends itself to "leave your email." -- it's food.

That said, your execution might be failing, but the product is not a failure.

 

[Red]

The glaring red flag I see is that you don't list your ingredients anywhere. There's no way I'm giving you a second thought (let alone my contact info) when you don't put an integral component of your product on the website for review.

 

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[Red]

We decided not to post Nutritionals yet because we can improve them to it depending on how much funds we get with the campaign. Could always over-deliver tho. What do you think?

The thing is, you're a part of a seedy industry -this means you have a great opportunity to shine here. The food industry has played with terms like "natural" and "healthy" to mean anything but the definition they have bought & paid for. I don't trust food manufacturers. I'm not alone. Your target audience has been fooled many times before. If you're not up front about ingredients, I automatically assume you're hiding something. Or, at the very least, using sub-par contents or being shady about things. That may just be me... but... I know that's the way it is for many of my peer circle as well.

To say that your product's contents will "depend on how much funds you get" is another red flag. This tells me you don't care about quality like I do because you've made it an option rather than a non-negotiable priority. You care about capitalizing on a hot niche right now. The problem with your plan is that your target audience is consumer-savvy & sees through bullshit -whether it's intentional or not. I'm not trying to bust your balls here, even though I'm sure it feels like it at this point, but I am trying to give you a reality check for your target health-conscious market.

The approach you're taking is a mis-assessment of your target customer & that's why I think you're going to have trouble with this plan/product.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

We decided not to post Nutritionals yet because we can improve them to it depending on how much funds we get with the campaign. Could always over-deliver tho. What do you think?

When it comes to food and indigestibles, I would NOT be posting one ingredient list, and then delivering another.

What you ultimately advertise is what you should deliver, I might buy your product because it LACKS or HAS a certain ingredient. Other people will as well.

 

[Bellini]

@juanalou , I like your idea and the look of the product.

To state the obvious, no amount of copywriting or technology is going to make up for putting it in their MOUTH.

Read: SAMPLES

They have to TASTE IT.

Give as many samples away as you can. Not necessarily whole packs but maybe you can get mini sample bags to give to potential retailers and customers so they can try it.

I've seen people standing with food trays in the middle of shopping centers, food courts, bars, sidewalks, festivals, etc with a tray of food for people to try. Let them try a chip or two. All they need to know is how it tastes and how to get it. Consider the free food as part of your marketing expense.

As @Fortune5ive mentioned, consider military and even camping or outdoors stores.

I don't know if vending machines are popular in Barcelona, but if so, consider trying to get your chips put in vending machines in busy office buildings.

Hopefully you will find a retailer who will be willing to carry your product. Good luck.

 

[Choate]

While the design and presentation of the website is elegant and simple, there are a few fundamental flaws that I think are preventing you from getting more emails, if that's your primary goal for right now.

- The way the pink text arcs up makes it look like the website is a single page and doesn't scroll down.

The fix: include a button or something that shows you can navigate downwards to the next section.

- Your email collection is below the fold. The fold that makes it look like its a one page website without scrolling down. Even worst - its below, "Launching soon on kickstarter".

The fix: if your goal is email collection, make it prominent by either suggesting it right next to or under your product photos, or having a pop up over them, if you can do that without detracting the value of your offering.

- As far as the copy goes... You want to be selling benefits, not features. If this is a meal replacement, how is it going to make me feel after eating it? Am I really going to be full?

The fix: Tell me how it makes me feel, how I can still eat potato chips and feel great, making my friends and family jealous, or something. You know what it tells me when you list non-GMO and gluten free on your product? Its probably going to cost a lot more than other potato chips. So yeah, I'd list that somewhere, but not make it so prominent.

- In the little poll, at least give users an idea of how others' voted. If I voted for Smoky BBQ, it'd be cool to see what percentage of the other voters agreed, or chose the other options.

Example: 43% Smoky BBQ, 20% Sour Cream and Onion, 37% Sea Salt. Thanks for voting!

In my opinion, three major things you can do: bring your email collection directly into your customers' sight when they visit the webpage. Re-write all of the copy from the ground up. There are lots of great threads here on the forum about copy. And write a little story about how you got started. Make it real personal, with its own section between your header and your "features", because people love reading how things got started. That's your time to write some great copy and transfer your emotions to the reader how it benefited you so they can put themselves in your shoes.

 

[G-Man]

your target audience is consumer-savvy & sees through bullshit -whether it's intentional or not.

I gotta be honest, I LOL'ed at this. There's no industry built more thoroughly on complete and utter bullshit than healthy/organic/natural CPG. Go into a Whole Foods, look at how busy it is, then tell yourself people can see through bullshit.

That said, @Red is right that you need to seriously think about your product and what goes into it. You're not selling a pencil or a light bulb, you're selling people something they put in their body. As in any other business, be worthy of your customers' trust, especially the kind of trust that leads them to feeding their kids with your product.

 

[Fox]

Cool idea.

The downside to what a lot of your current competition offers is sugar. Protein bars, nuts, cereal bars - all super heavy in sugar. I love sugar but my body reacts really bad to it. If these very quite healthy (cooked with good oil and not much salt) I would see them being highly popular.

Great for post gym, jog, work, surf etc.

As others have said too your marketing is on point. Nice work.

 

[G-Man]

I'm going to give a couple notes here. I currently work for a CPG startup that has distribution in grocery chains. It's not the same category as your product, and I could be wrong, but this isn't coming from nowhere either

• Avoid coupons - your conversion will be low, and the people that tend to buy are people that only buy when your product is on deal. You are looking to create actual fans - people who will repeat-purchase at full price. Discounts can have this same effect of cheapening your brand.
• Free samples - usually avoid. It has always been a failure for us, but there are some pretty famous success stories that used them heavily. You don't have distribution, so it will definitely do you no good to give someone a free sample if there's then nowhere they can go buy it.
• I see small batch is a problem, which isn't surprising. Please tell me your packer is in the US and not Spain.

Getting distribution will be a little tough if you don't have a gimmick. Buyers for major chains don't usually take risks, and if they do pick up a niche product, they're often looking to rip it off with private label, which is an ugly experience.

You might want to start by profiling your customer then working backwards. Where do they shop? How do they make buying choices? What influences those choices?

Small shops are an option, as actually is AAFES like someone suggested, but expect that to be a long process. Have you thought about the concessioners that have the contracts for university book stores, national parks, and airports?

Since you're selling a healthy alternative to a bag of gas station chips, you might want to look in places like the above where people have limited choices and therefore aren't as price sensitive.

BTW - Your packaging is beautiful. Love it.

 

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[juanalou]

Alright pal, it's been a month since you posted this. Update me! I want some chips!

Hi!
Updates:
We decided to ditch the Kickstarter for a few reasons:

• Our product isn't that suited for a crowdfunding campaign on either indiegogo or kickstarter. Food projects just don't have that much traction. We did an extensive research and the numbers just don't work
• As some of you mentioned, it isn't worth it to pay up to 10% in fees when you have to bring your own traffic. Bringing traffic to our own e-commerce website is better. We had to ask for 30k more than we needed to get the product at a cheaper price, give out free units and pay all the fees. It just didn't make sense. 60k for a food project is unheard of (except for Soylent of course, but the odds are not on our side.)
• We will roll out pre-orders this week through our own e-commerce website.
• We started rolling adds in the EU and there's quite a bit of demand. The response was way better than US/CA so our marketing efforts are going towards this market. Won't ditch the USA tho.

So I will let you know when pre-orders are up and how everything goes from there. Have a nice sunday all!

 

[Millenial_Kid5K1]

Your website is really well designed. As a foodie, the first thing I noticed was the "non-GMO!" "Gluten Free!" labels. Is your target demographic health-conscious people? Maybe you could expound on the nutritional benefits of your product (e.g. "All the crunch of potato chips, with none of the saturated fats.", or "Same nutrition as a lean chicken breast and side of carrots, without the hassle of cooking!"). I'm not a copywriter though, take with a grain of salt.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

The glaring red flag I see is that you don't list your ingredients anywhere. There's no way I'm giving you a second thought (let alone my contact info) when you don't put an integral component of your product on the website for review.

+1 here.

A lack of nutritional panel and a list of ingredients is a value attribute (I spoke about this at 2016 Summit) which will lose customers and reduce the size of the market.

 

[Nam88]

Here's what I would do, since your product is a niche product.

I would go with facebook ads.

You can choose lead objective or direct sale sale (called conversion)

You make a very nice video where you point out the benefit.

The structure of the video should be something like this.

First 5 seconds of the video are critical. Start by showing off the product, it's benefits/solutions or just how great it is. For about 20 seconds.

Then show some information and instructions with text in the video, or other benefits/solutions

Most of my videos are 40 seconds to 1 1/2 Minutes in length.

Edit to make quick transitions for short attention spans.

Get some some decent stock background music. Only 8% listen to the audio!

Render final ad video in 1:1 square to use maximum space in Facebook.

(anyway you can see American info commercial they do great video … miracle blade etc)

You lead them to a regular e commerce funnel. Where they add to cart and all the way to the checkout page where you say that you’re out of stock or developing your product and that if they want you send them a sample package for free. They will need to put their info so you will have your email and potential customer data.


Targeting: you brainstorm the categories that your product would be appealing too.


I saw from ealier post that categories that could be in your potential target audience are

People who love camping, body builder, busy office worker that want to eat healthy.


Be aware that you need to think about targeting first before doing the video. If you think that your product would sell in the body builder niche you should include an image of a body builder in the video or something that resonate with audience. You can put more than one in the video.

Of course one video for every niche would be the best but it's costly and time consuming. You can re-use the video in your kickstarter campaign btw.


When you target on fb don’t go broad (like bodybuilder) . Use people who like magazine , celebrity ( in the niche) , brands of supplements or merchandise related ( already buying audience)


When you have enough click or email ( at least 300) in fb pixel (you should set one) you can create a lookalike audience. Facebook will analyze this 300 people find similarities and create and audience of 2 mil with same characteristic and trust me they know us better than ourself.


With enough test you will have already idea of which people you should target at fairs etc, age range , gender. Maybe your potential customer are bodybuilder? Maybe, it’s just an assumption.Just data can tell and data don’t lie. J


I can’t allocate budget for this type of test unfortunately depends on many factor including your video targeting offer.


Sorry If I made this long post but your product is really interesting and the input here are really good. If you don’t know where to start with facebook adveriting you can find many related group on fb.

 

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[G-Man]

Of course price will be an issue. Gluten free always means high prices even though it shouldn't.

How readily available are they going to be? Grocery stores or only order online?

@juanalou Read this comment and you'll understand why grocery is a giant ghetto to be avoided until you're already turning. Folks want a healthy product that meets all kinds of obscure dietary requirements, and they want it to be price competitive with a Frito product.

Welcome to every single day of my life

Start with a non mainline grocery channel.

@trh90 I'm not trying to be rude, but this was too poignant of an example to not point out to someone interested in going into food.

 

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[Nik Krohn]

Any tips for building email list?

Lol that is the fun part. Get customers. It is hard to build the momentum for first time ecommerce companies.

Maybe look into finding similar companies that are not competitors and doing some sort of JV.

I use a lot of deal sites (mommy deal sites like Jane, brickyard buffalo, etc) and I usually get their email address with purchase. So I offer a discount on the product and I get 500 orders and 500 emails. This could be a source of emails to build a list

 

[G-Man]

Hi Guys,

I have developed the following product: A complete meal in a bag of chips. It contains all the nutrients that you need from a meal and tastes good unlike the current meal replacement products. I am looking to get funded with Kickstarter to bring it to shelves. I have spent months researching my target market and while they respond well, nobody is interested in leaving their emails once they visit the site. I suppose it's that they do not care for it that much..

I have been using Instagram and FB PPC as means to get traffic and it's ok at best. I know it is really crucial to have an actual email list before even putting up something live on the Kickstarter site. What could be wrong from your opinion? Website design? Copywriting? or the idea is not appealing at all?

www.satisbite.com

Thanks

I like the "welcome to the future of food" line. You might want to add a story line or benefit angle to the product - i.e. pictures of fit people in workout gear enjoying a satisbite.

BTW, since you're going with the 1.5 oz bag, I'd try a 3 pack, a club style multipack, or a POS tabletop corrugate display.

Are you developing for US or European market?

 

[wade1mil]

Email opt in for food product...I think MJ said it before - not quite a typical thing to give your email for.

People might opt in for a coupon or a free bag (if that's possible). "Enter your email and we'll send you a coupon for $X.XX off."

 

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[G-Man]

When it comes to food and indigestibles, I would NOT be posting one ingredient list, and then delivering another.

What you ultimately advertise is what you should deliver, I might buy your product because it LACKS or HAS a certain ingredient. Other people will as well.

This. You're selling a product to a health conscious market. You would lose all credibility, probably immortalized online till the end of time.

Maybe you could help us out finding distributors

Go direct to as many outlets as possible first. Delay adding the insanity of a distributor until you have the capital and time/manpower to manage them.

 

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[Nik Krohn]

I just ran a kickstarter raising $330,000 in a 8 day campaign and 90% of the funding came from our email lists. We did a lot of FB ads as well (KS Interest targeting and Lookalike targeting) and they just don't perform like driving traffic to your site post campaign.

My advice: DITCH KICKSTARTER and start selling.

KS is not what it used to be. Out of the $330k raised, only $9200 came from being on the popular page (We were #1 for 3 days and STILL did under 10k).

 

[KLaw]

I say keep pursuing email addresses. Weird. I've seen several comments made by folks stating... They wouldn't give up their email for food products. Have they never ordered pizza, Chinese, groceries online? I'd say that puts them in the minority of the group you want to target. Btw, you have to list your ingredients. Even if it changes, it gives you another chance to "touch" your potential customers by reaching out and letting them know of the change. This can only help to develop a loyal following. Good luck.

 

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[Carol Jones]

G'day @juanalou from Oz,

What an interesting story.

I'm a foodie fan. And read tomes of articles about food. Just because I'm a curious gal. Who cooks. And eats.

I've been on your website. And the product looks good. And is free from harmful ingredients found in most processed food.

Some observations.

You need to appeal to niche markets separately. And tell each niche market a different story.

Baby Boomers are in retirement. Or nearing it. And are looking for nutritious food to eat that's minimal preparation. And cleaning up afterwards. They've already consumed a lifetime of the harmful ingredients that are in packaged food. So are aware of the benefits of all natural ingredients. Especially if they're going to feed it to their grandchildren.

Generation X is obsessed about avoiding processed food that causes cancer. And they are fanatical about what their children eat. They read the fine print on every label. I see them put items back on the supermarket shelves muttering 'that's too dangerous to consume'.

Millennials. Or Gen Y. Are mature now. Many are in their 30's. They're starting families. Buying houses. They eat mostly wholesome food. Eschew fast food restaurants. And really aren't into processed food in a package.

Gen Z loves nutritious food that doesn't need to be prepared. Or cleaned up after consuming. Your Complete Chip is exactly what they're looking for.

These are all different groups that need different stories to make The Complete Chip appeal to them.

Regarding funding. How much do you want to raise?

Have you got the followers to make crowdfunding work for you? You need to have tens of thousands of followers on social media to meet even a small target.

If you fall short of your target, do you get to keep what supporters contributed? Or do you lose it all?

Is there a difference between Kickstarter and GoFundMe regarding what $$$$ you get to keep?

If you acquire an email address, what will you do with it? Do you have a strategy for developing a long-term relationship with your customer using email? Do you know how often you'll be keeping in touch with them? Do you know what you'll be offering them on a regular basis to keep the relationship active?

Regarding Facebook.

Facebook is virtually a grandparents platform now. The most active users are Baby Boomers. Keeping in touch with old friends. And with their children.

Gen X is on Facebook. But the ones who are interested in your product would mainly be found in Groups on Facebook. Which are very popular with this generation. Parenting groups. Food groups. Business groups. Craft groups. They introduced their parents to Facebook.

Millennials. Gen Y. Have Facebook pages. But rarely use them. They are found on private platforms. They don't want to be where their parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles are.

Gen Z, which is a good market for you, are not on Facebook. They're on Snapchat. And other more trendy platforms. They definitely don't want to be where their parents and grandparents hang out either.

Avoid coupons - your conversion will be low, and the people that tend to buy are people that only buy when your product is on deal. You are looking to create actual fans - people who will repeat-purchase at full price. Discounts can have this same effect of cheapening your brand.

I agree with @G-Man on this. As a consumer, I can relate to what he says. If my first purchase is a special price, I resent having to pay full price for my next purchase. I also think most people who buy an item first time on a special price are tyre kickers. And don't become loyal fans.

On the other side of the coin. If I'm a devoted consumer of a product, and it goes on special. I consider myself lucky. And I don't resent it when the next time I purchase I have to pay full price.

I sat in on a seminar last week regarding churn. And learned that 70% of consumers never buy a product a second time when the first purchase was a special price.

And of the remaining 30%. Most will only be a repeat customer twice more.

We're a complicated species when it comes to the brain!

You have to factor those percentages into your long-range forecast for sales.

You have a lot of positive feedback from the forum about the product. And its natural virtues. But everyone is still at a loss as to how you get it into the marketplace.

Have you established this product in Spain? Your home country? Is there a reason you don't want to start small? And then progress to larger markets like the USA?

Lots of questions. As I said, I'm a curious gal. I wish you well. And look forward to following this thread. ~Carol❤

 

[Fortune5ive]

There's a young guy who developed a "soylent green" product that includes every nutrient one needs on a daily basis. His company has taken off. Even has major investors. Try it. Why not? Maybe they're military applications similar to MREs(Meals Ready to Eat).

 

[AndrewNC]

I feel you have a real winner with the Product. I'd personally investin this if I was an investor who has experience in bringing food products to market.

Have you considered that route?

@wade1mil has ran successful kickstarter campaigns before. He can give feedback on that.

Email opt in for food product...I think MJ said it before - not quite a typical thing to give your email for.

Def great work on the concept

 

[Fortune5ive]

People might opt in for a coupon or a free bag (if that's possible). "Enter your email and we'll send you a coupon for $X.XX off."

I don't think a bag of chips is enough to motivate the average consumer to choose to wait for a coupon in exchange for giving up their email. For a large brand like Doritos, yes! I think this product needs to be shopped around to an established health food brand and possibly the OP can negotiate a royalty of some sort. Perhaps even a buyout. I know we all want to come up with great ideas and see it through but we must also realize how competitive and redundant this market is. If you reach for a health bar...you'll have like 10 choices...even more.

 

[Mac]

Prisoners eat something similar called slam. Except its pork, chips and whatever they can get their hands on smashed around in a bag and then consumed. Ex-cons might be another market haha (not that I am one).

 

[GoodluckChuck]

Kind of out of the box but the first thing that came to mind was bars in Utah.... I know, random..

In many beverage selling establishments in Utah it's illegal to sell a beer without food. Perhaps something like this would be a way to get some bites taken out of your product. Places like ski resorts would have a hayday with these. All those ski bums that want to buy beer but don't want to order a meal could grab a meal to go.

Just an idea

 

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[MidwestLandlord]

If this product can really deliver on its promise, it should be in every grocery store, c-store, and airport snack shop in the civilized world.

Learn to sell it.

Seriously, one of the best ideas I've ever seen.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Marked NOTABLE, some really great feedback/comments in here, from multiple angles (marketing, health, FB, website optimization...)

 

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[TheDillon__]

Hell yeah, they're vegan! I've never dropped my email for a food product but hell, you got mine!

That said, the vegan label is an important and pesky one!

Watch out for minor (but frequent) animal based additives like casein, L-Cysteine, whey, vitamin D3, etc.

There are, to my knowledge, alternatives that are equally, if not more, effective at a competitive cost.

If you're interested in sourcing, any replacements for the above, I'd be happy to connect you with someone.